about this as a veteran and a decorated one, isn't it something that the most famous veteran of the vietnam war was a p.o.w., that it -- it wasn't murphy or colin kelly who went down the smoke stack of a ship. it wasn't something like that. it was kind of a different experience. what do you make of the fact that he is court of the figure we think of in politics certainly who served? >> well, i think it's a complete different experience. it's one thing to be in uniform and fight against the enemies of the republic and serve and in many cases give the last full measure. it's something else again to be in a position where you have to continue to endure torture for a long period of time. it's not surprising that john mccain was one of the most outstanding opponents of enhanced interrogation techniques. he knows himself that what

you're going to get out of somebody when you do that is bad information because whoever it is, eventually you'll break them but the great likelihood is that you're going to wind up with information that's either too old or is made up because the person you're torturing wants you to stop. he always thought the worst of himself for breaking, but if you talk to people who were there with him, they'll tell you that almost everybody breaks, everybody's got a breaking point, and that john mccain was no different than anybody else. many of them have forgiven themselves for having broken. john mccain never did. and that is because, as i was saying earlier, he never took himself seriously. he knew what his failings and weaknesses were. nobody knows himself better than himself. you know what your weaknesses

are. >> colonel, thank you. you're a great man. thank you. we have to pause now for this moment as well, for cindy mccain to leave the latest wreath in honor of her husband and all of them. [ silence ]

[ silence ]

that's a proud honoring military parade there really of family members, john kelly and jim mattis but also all the mccain -- two boys, jimmy and -- jack rather in his naval uniform, in the whites, and jimmy in the marine uniform and of course meghan behind them, all behind cindy who's the widow

now. this is so military. it's the family tradition of the mccains to be military. three generations of high level naval officers before him, and mccain followed in those foot steps as this family is honoring it now. it's unusual in recent american history to have someone in politics this high up who has such a profound experience in the military. it's probably something we're going to miss in the years ahead. bill clinton was the first president after the post world war. we had 8 presidents in a row who were in uniform during world war ii one way or the other all the way up until jimmy carter and reagan. they were all in uniform during world war ii hostilities and we don't have that right now in our political culture at all. today it's certainly going to be honored. let me go to steve schmitt. steve, i've always watched you as someone who's in the political trenches on the inside

when it gets rough and unpleasant. you were with john mccain all those years with him when he's facing hell politically. he wouhad come out of vietnam. how did those two fill together, can you tell, when you dealt with his soul? >> well, let me just say, chris, that in watching this it's hard to talk about this morning. probably be a better person if it was easier to talk about my feelings. it's -- he was the greatest man i've ever known. he was a giant, statesman, hero. he was the best of us, a flawed man, but even his flaws were great. his service to the country, every hour of his adult life was

spent in service to america with the exception of the period where he was a candidate for congress. if you go to the prison in hanoi where john mccain was held for five and a half years, you understand the capacity in the man's heart for the concepts of redemption and forgiveness, that he along with john kerry were instrumental about bringing peace between the united states and vietnam, that he was able to bridge the divide so that a generation would be able to live in peace with each other, americans and vietnamese. it's just extraordinary the capacity for love, for forgiveness that i think is central and core to john mccain.

he was a tough guy. you talk about service in the military but when we think about -- and certainly through a christian perspective -- the ideas of suffering and redemption, he suffered immense physical pain, torture for many years, the torture of isolation. in the end he wasn't angry about it. he was fortified by it. anything that ever happened to him in a political campaign in the rough and tumble was by any measure dim inmuscle against what his experiences were in prison, his experiences of dealing with the effects of that in prison, his wounds, his physical limitations.

he more perfectly loved this country than any person i've ever known that i've ever met, and he's a giant figure in the history of the country. and i think that wherever people are free 1,000 years from now, they'll know the name john mccain as a champion of liberty, of freedom, of american values. when you think about reconciliation and the way that he was able to help bring about a reconciliation to the vietnamese people, the american people, that soon in this country an hour will come where we will need to have a moment of reconciliation between us. in his farewell letter what john mccain talked about was that the proudest and i heard him say it many times, the proudest

association, the thing that had the most meaning in his life and it was a life filled with honors and decorations and titles, senator, republican nominee for president, but the one that meant the most to him was my fellow american. if you understand the story of his life, you understand the story of suffering and grace and forgiveness and ultimately reconciliation, we're coming to a point in this country where we're going to need to have a reconciliation amongst us to remember, as lincoln talked about, that in fact we must be friends. we're not each other's enemies. when we look out at this funeral crowd today, we'll talk about the things the man did and we'll talk about a life of service and valor, but i think it's really important to talk about the

things that this man believed in. he believed in the american republic. he believed in the idea that founded the country, this idea of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. he devoted his entire life to it and the values and the ideas that john mccain cherished deeply in his heart, all of them, are in retreat around the world and under assault here at home. so as we watch this unfold today, when we watch these proceedings, we should not watch them absent an understanding of the deep conviction in this man's heart about what this country is, what it has been, what it musct continue to be, what it stands for and the values, the ideas of liberty, of freedom, of independence.

>> steve, well said. thank you. and i do think that the statement being made today, what we'll remember, i think, long after what we've said or anyone has said today, we're going to remember who was here today. as hemmingway once said, as he said in "for whom the bell tolls", we remember the names of the cities where the battles were held, not the adjectives. i'm looking at bob dole coming back late in his life, coming back in a wheelchair with his wife. i'm looking at 106-year-old roberta mccain, also in a wheelchair, coming up the aisle here at the national cathedral. looking at al gore, the former vice president. this is quite an array of personalities who all again had a personal relationship in good times and bad with john mccain. i'm sure almost everyone in this room has been in a fight with john mccain at some point, has wondered what he thought of

them, what they thought of him. i was always personal. this is unusual in politics, these personal relationships. i think we're going see a lot of people with thoughts of memories of what they've been through with this guy. john, get in here. you've written about churchill and roosevelt, you've written about jackson. these people, i don't know if at any time in history has there been one person who's been so well personally known by every single person whose name will be mentioned today. >> that's right. i think one of the striking things and we see it now with this pan apli of american power both past and president is senator mccain is a veteran of our most controversial war and yet i think he's always seemed to be a kind of honorary world

war ii generation figure. i think part of it is because of his grandfather and his father, but when you were around mccain it felt more as though you were around herman wokes, pug henry. of course bob dole, senator dole, george h.w. bush, going back, president ford, you had these figures who had served in the great struggle against tyranny, the great global struggle, and mccain just breathed that world in. mrs. mccain, roberta mccain who we just saw, had an apartment up an connecticut avenue, sort of in that old washington world where mamie and dwight eisenhower also had an apartment when ike was chief of staff to

douglas mcarthur. you go into a sentence like that and you realize that what we're seeing here is a snapshot, a kind of family album of a country that did the right thing at mid century. it took us a while, chris, as you know. franklin roosevelt had to juggle us into world war ii. he once said i'm a juggler. i never let my left hand know what my right hand is doing. but that's the nature of power. that's the nature of reality in a fallen world. i think that we will look back for a long time today and we should, but john mccain would also want us to look forward. i think this is a very dramatic, very carefully orchestrated message to the country, not that these days are gone forever but that this is what we must do,

this is who we must be if we're going to survive our present crises. one of the things about senator mccain and bob dole and again president bush, is these were men who looked forward. they knew that losing an election was not the worst day they would ever had because they got shot down out of the sky or lost an arm in italy or were captured in hanoi. they had a sense of perspective and proportion and i think they would want us to share that and realize that winning a news cycle, winning a twitter battle, is not what public service is ultimately about. >> i want to go back to steve schmitt if i can and ask the toughest question and it's the elephant in the room. if people in this room and people like orrin hatch and al gore and every face we remember

from politics for 20, 30 years, bob dole, everybody's here, how come if they do share in this sense of communion today and they believe in getting along when you have to get along, why are they all bowing to the president, steve, why are they doing what they're told as if they were artificial intelligence? why is that going on if they really do believe in this communion of nationality of america? >> we see in public life today, chris, a season of cowardice where so many people have become infidelous to the ideals and the ideals of the nation where, in my view, they have foresworn their oaths, that they have become beobedient in a cult of personalty to a vile and

objectionable leader who tramples on every sense of decency and every good virtue in the country. a lot of those people are sitting in the room today, and they'll be in that service and they'll nod and they'll weep as they remember john mccain's life, but the way to honor john mccain is to be faithful to the idea and ideals of the country. all around the world from poland and hungary and austria, we see a regression of democracy, we see a rise of authoritarians. we see a president of the united states who has a fetish for autocratic leaders all around the world, who is hostile to the ideas and ideals of american democracy, of the republic, that

john mccain committed his entire life to, that for any person who is watching this at home, if you want to honor john mccain, by all means please buy and read the book "the restless wave." his last words to the country, read his farewell letter where he talks about the greatness of the nation but the animating ideas behind it. today those ideas are all under stress. they are in retreat all around the world, and they should be championed and defended. it's great to watch ivanka trump and jared kushner hug lindsey graham, but the reality is that jared and ivanka are on the side of a movement that stands for everything that john mccain was

against and opposed and fought against for his entire life. trumpism is antithetical to everything that john mccain believed in, and so when we see the republican party given over completely to trumpism, this is what john mccain is trying to send a message to us about, that this is not the right path, that this is not the right direction, and that there's a moment of choosing. republicans and democrats -- and chris, we came up, you and i, in different political parties and we fight in this country fiercely. there was never a jen teal period of american politics, but all of us largely and certainly in the post world war ii era were animated by a common set of beliefs. our debates were fundamentally

about how do we achieve a result in the same direction. what we see now today in the country is a real questioning whether it is the hostility to immigration, whether it is hostility to the animating ideas of the country, freedom of the press, freedom of speech. we see all of this under assault. in this hour we should reflect on john mccain's absolute fidelity to these fundamental american ideas, ideals, and we see so many people there today who are not faithful to the things that this man spent his entire life fighting for. >> steve, thank you. i love every word you said. thank you for being here today. i think that was a tough message that we had to hear today.

let me say we've been watching the motorcade that just passed here now on the way to the national cathedral in northwest washington for of course the funeral today. this funeral will include some amazing words, i think, from some very interesting people. president barack obama is going to speak today. i don't think he's arrived yet. president george w. bush. both of these gentlemen were competitors and rivals and sometimes serious rivals of the president. i don't know how john mccain got over the treatment he got at the hands of george w. bush back when he lost the fight for the nomination back in 2000, especially what happened in south carolina, but he has gotten over it. he picked him to speak today. he also has barack obama who put him out for the presidency in 2008 and he's also speaking today, as meghan mccain who has been crying all morning here. we've been watching that. his daughter is going to be speaking today as his fellow

amigo as he put it, joe lieberman, a democrat who he wanted to put on the ticket with him in 2008. maybe we should go back to steve for a thought on that. was that a real possibility that he was going to break all protocol and run a bipartisan ticket for president and vice president? >> sure was, chris. it came very, very close to happening. he wanted to pick joe lieberman and basically the message of the campaign would have been this and we talked about it, john mccain would have gone out and he would have said that i've spent every hour of my adult life in service to america. if the american people so honor me, i have one last mission and i've asked my good friend, a great patriot, a great member of the democratic party, joe lieberm lieberman, to be my wingman. together we'll serve one term, four years, and we'll fix this

country's biggest problems and we'll take a timeout from this poisonous partisanship that has divided us. and after four years it will be time for this old man to go home to his ranch in sedona, arizona and catch up on his readings. but it didn't happen. what we needed for that to occur was total secrecy coming into the republican convention without going into the rules. word leaked out that it was under serious consideration and forces in the republican party that would oppose that obviously had time to organize against it and made it impossible for us to do. but it came very close to happening. i believe it could have well put a choice to the country that john mccain would have prevailed on. i think it would have been great for the country. by the way, as part of that what he was going to say about barack obama was that barack obama is a

good man, and i believe one day he'll be president but he's not ready quite yet. maybe in a couple of years. but we didn't get to see that campaign for a bunch of different reasons, and i'll regret that all of my days. but i do think -- >> i think we are a's g're gett today. steve, i think we're getting a taste of that today at least, argue like hell but recognize the cooperation. howie, give us a setup of the funeral service coming, this next hour and a half. >> right now, chris, you can see behind me here the motorcade has arrived at the national cathedral. we heard the rumble of the motorcycles pull in and you can see now the hearse pulling up.

we have seen basically every person who matters in washington, every power player in the world of politics here today, people on both sides of the aisle, members of congress who talked about the need for a bipartisanship and the way that john mccain's death has brought people together. i think that's reflected in the conversations that we're watching that are happening inside this cathedral. there was a moment when house speaker paul ryan was talking with senator dick durbin for example. yesterday we saw nancy pelosi easy courting congressman sam johnson into the rotunda, of course sam johnson shared a prison cell with john mccain in han hanoi. ivanka trump and jared kushner have been seen talking with senator lindsey graham. kel kelly ayotte taking on that kind of third amigo role after joe lieberman left the senate.

we will see the memorial service start in just about the next 30 minutes or so. the former presidents that will be eulogizing john mccain, barack obama, george w. bush, will be held sort of in the back of the cathedral until it's time for them to come out to where attendees are sitting. then you're going to hear meghan mccain deliver a tribute to her father. she has been the most public of john mccain's children. she obviously appears on "the view." she has pushed back against critics of her father's when necessary. we have seen her throughout this week overcome with emotion at times, the first time she saw her father's casket for example in arizona, yesterday holding the hand of her grandmother, roberta mccain, 106 years old who we have seen inside the cathedral as well. meghan will deliver a tribute to her father. she talked about him being a fire that burns bright, living in his light and warmth. i think a lot of people will want to hear what meghan mccain

has to say. other attendees, people who john mccain knew not just in the world of politics but outside that too. for example, jay leno is here. the last day that jay leno did the tonight show, john mccain said he made 426 jokes about me but i'll miss the guy. you see a reflection of people who were impacted, affected by john mccain all over the country who are here in washington today. obviously a notable absence of course, president trump. he is back at the white house. he has sent some tweets this morning unrelated to senator mccain, talking about for example the department of justice and the fbi. when you talk to those who were close to the senator, they don't want to talk about donald trump. they want to talk about john mccain, his legacy, his service. after meghan mccain speaks, you're going to hear from senator lieberman, somebody who was extremely close with john mccain. he has visited with him. he was one of, again, the three amigos, along with lindsey graham during their time in the

senate. we'll hear a tribute from joe lieberman later on as well as henry kissinger who shared a story. senator mccain told esquire for example that he add meyemires h kissinger for his ability to present his view of the world in an interesting way. there was a moment where kissinger was giving congressional testimony earlier this year, chris, when john mccain was already back in arizona. kissinger was speaking to members of congress and telling a story about how he was actually in vietnam, he was in hanoi the day that john mccain was released. he said there was an offer to get john mccain on his plane to take him back home and henry kissinger turned it down because it would have given him special treatment, it would have gone out of order for example, and mccain came up to him after when they were both at the white house and senator mccain said to henry kissinger, thank you for saving my honor. there's going to be music, songs that you will recognize, songs of patriotism, the national

cathedral said this will be a patriotic service. there's nothing john mccain loved more besides his family than his country and that is going to be reflected in what you will see over the next two hours or so here. clearly a lot of people will want to know what will barack obama and george w. bush say. the two of them delivering their eulogies back-to-back. the presidents again, we won't see them for a couple of minutes. you see ambassador john bolton, somebody president trump asked to represent his administration at the services in washington. you will hear from those former presidents, political rivals of john mccain as you've been talking about this morning. sometimes people forget how hard fought that 2000 battle was. and then in 2008, that no ma'am mome moment. that said, i think that that is going to be one of the themes that you will hear from both president obama and president bush. as you take a look at other attendees now walking into the

cathedral, i want to highlight one other moment, a powerful moment, senator elizabeth warren was at the vietnam veterans memorial. hundreds of people lined up behind the scenes and they applauded as cindy mccain, accompanied by secretary of defense jim mattis and chief of staff john kelly walked away, got back into the motorcade and headed here to the national cathedral. chris. >> howie jackson, thanks so much for that explanation of what we're going to see in this funeral service at the national cathedral in washington. the national cathedral by the way is episcopalen. one of my sons song here in the chorus. it's the national cathedral for all denominations and religions. i remember when anwar sadat was assassinated we had a service there. you can hear the call to prayer to the nave there. it's an his tore historic build

everybody should come to visit when they come to washington. it sounds a little vulgar maybe to say but everyone's come because i think everyone wants to be part of this today, even those representatives of the administration coming in. i think that the bipartisan nature is going to be compelling. i do think it's going to be interesting to hear what barack obama says. apparently he's taking it quite seriously. he's got his top speech writer working on it, cody keener, and it's going to be, i think, a major address from him. of course he'll go over it again many, many times to get it straight. i think they'll all be economical in the time they use which is very important. as someone once said to me, when you ask someone to speak, tell them to speak for four minutes because if you say five minutes, they keep going. tell them a specific time. i hope that they all recognize the importance of economy of time here. everyone wants to hear from everyone today. i think it is interesting that you've got sort of a trio of hawks if you will who supported

the vietnam war and have supported the war since like joe lieberman of course and george w. bush, the president, and henry kissinger. but also you've got an interesting pan apli of doves like warren beatty the actor/director who's here as pall bearer. and gary hart who ran the campaign for george mcgovern in '72 against nixon. of course barack obama who also i think was fairly called a dove as well. i think we're seeing everybody here today. it's probably unfair to single a few out but of course roberta mccain, 106 years old, burying her son today. that is a tragic fact of their lives. john mccain hoped he could live as long as his mother. of course she hoped that too. all parents want their children

to outlive them, and john mccain suffered the same death of the brain cancer that joe biden's son beau suffered from and died from and ted kennedy suffered from and died from. that has become a consistent sort of pattern of death here in washington, those three all celebrated figures who died of the same disease. i want to bring in michael steele, former sem nair yan, and talk about this. it's interesting, we have a jesuit giving the homily today, father edward reebes. he was head of the jesuit school in phoenix, arizona where the two boys, jimmy and jack, went to school. the mccains, although they're protesta protestant, put their kids in a jesuit school. it just shows the richness, i think, of john mccain's existence, that he has these very different surfaces of his life that he's honoring today. >> absolutely, chris. as a former sem nair yan, i'll

forgive that jesuit nod there. the fact of the matter is it's very true that john mccain was as economic in his politics as he was in his life, reaching out to all communities to be a part of this representative are moment. you saw that reflected throughout this week back at home in arizona and certainly now here in washington today. you'll have these cross currents, republican, democrat, red, blue, kefconservative, liberal, christian, nonchristian coming together around this man's flag. he's holding that flag up high for us. he's shining the light of faith. he's shining the light of service. he's shining the light of communion on it. i think that's very, very important. you talk about the solemnity of this, the religious nature of

it. you referenced that earlier, and that's always been an important undercurrent for senator mccain. i remember talking to him when he was running for the u.s. senate in '06 and he supported that effort and we had a moment where we talked about my journey as a young sem nair yan and coming out of that into politics. he was fascinated by that journey. he always was interested in how the dots connected because that was so much a part of what he did, and he was very curious as to how others did it. he was always interested in other people's jurn eourneyjour. you don't see a lot of politicians today interested in what concerns other people. it tends to be a little bit more about them and their self-interest. that was not mccain in any way, shape or form. >> i've been watching, michael, watching people here. we watched joe lieberman come in with his wife. of course a very, very close friend of john mccain, he's

going to be speaking today. also with him, a very big supporter of the iraq war, very hawkish on the war, the two of them together. they called each other the amigos. then kelly ayotte was the third amigo. also, it was amazing to watch paul pelosi, the husband of the democratic leader of the house, chatting away with paul ryan, the speaker, her office number. i know paul very well. he's a good fella and very good at these personal relationships apart from politics. he's not a very political guy from what i can tell and he seems to enjoy just about everybody's company. it's interesting, always interesting to see how people pair off in these situations. obviously you pair off with somebody you want to pair off with. there's jane harmon, a long-time democrat member patting the chief of joe lieberman, former senator from connecticut of course. he's retired. there's his wife looking up at him with the blonde hair.

it's not a club, i don't think we should ever call politics a club. it should never be cliqueish, but they do work with each other, and damn it, it's a good thing to get along with people you work with. i think it's a reasonable way to do it. i do think -- michael, you and i agree, you can have strong idealogical opinions, and everybody cares about these wars that we don't like or that we do support, and yet you got to get along with people. i thought it was interesting that john mccain said in his last testament at the end of his latest book "the restless wave" where he said i want to bring back the practices and the purposes that made this -- our country different than all other countries and the culture that made it different was the sense that we're in this together, that we can argue like kids argue if you will or like grownups who hate each other fight, but in the end you got to make deals and you got to make decisions and you got to have the debate.

the debate itself and the freedom to have that debate is above everything else. i think he wants that to be the message today, that the republic itself, the democracy itself is more important than one side winning every fight. >> oh man, you just put your finger on the heart of it. when you look at the images -- >> there's the president coming in, president george w. bush, who it took a lot of forgiveness for john mccain to put him on the list of speakers today. that was one brutal campaign back in 2000. president obama has come in too. there's hillary clinton, of course former secretary of state, former democratic nominee for president in the last election who won the popular vote, we must not forget, won it dramatically. there's barack obama. i think he's going to give a stemwinder today. i think he takes this very seriously. from what i hear, he has. we're going to get a great

moment here from him. but again, i want -- michelle obama theis there. she has a book coming out. there's bill clinton who's looking good actually. he's had health challenges of course. he's looking good. i think that's al gore to the right. there he is, that's al gore right there in profile on the right. >> and chris, president clinton spent most of yesterday at aretha franklin's funeral which was talked about -- >> yeah, he was at home, wasn't he? i thought he was very much at home in that front row. i think al sharpton was great yesterday. that was another communion, i thought, of people and personalties. there's george w. bush of course in the foreground there. dick cheney is there as well.

there's the senator from minnesota with barack obama chatting there. she has sort of a girl next door image and i think it's appropriate for her, accurate. she's very likable. let's see, bill clinton is chatting away there. this he's one of the most sociable politicians we've ever come across, bill clinton. he can get along in everyone room. i always thought if he showed up on mars he would get them laughing. he would figure out what their sense of humor was. they've all been in this together. the one thing about politicians -- michael, you ran for the senate as i remember voting for you in maryland. i have to tell you there is a sense of being in the arena. there's pat leahy, pretty much the senior democratic senator, and marcelle, his wife with him. once you've run for office and faced the lions, i think you have a lot in common with other

politicians, men and woman boen, who have faced the lions and taken on the press. let's take a break here. here's cindy mccain with the honor guard and meghan mccain who will be speaking in a few minutes.

we're having the arrival prayer here delivered by the bishop of washington.

let's bring in jon meacham. the litturgyliturgy, tell us, i broad church episcopalianism? how would you describe the service coming up? >> this is broad church. it will feel very high church because of the setting, but one of the remarkable gifts of angeloism from the 16th century going forward has been the theological idea and it's manifested in the service that we are all god's children. and so this is what will happen

to me some day, what will happen to any soul who is buried in the church is received by the ordained priest where it's acknowledged that it's dust to dust. we come from dust and to dust we shall return. it's an appreciation of the great gifts of the individual but also this is the church universal and the prayers you will hear will have special resonance but they will also be repeated endless times, countless times around the world. >> it will have, from my experience -- tell us, it will have an elizabethen feel to it in the rhythms of the music? how would you describe what's going to come? >> it will. the language from the prayer book, the book of common prayer, which is one of the great

achievements with shakespeare, with milton, it shaped the language for centuries, it will feel a little old-fashioned but that's the church that senator mccain grew up in. remember he went to boarding school in alexandria, virginia. as a prisoner in hanoi, he was the chaplain of his cell block and would repeat liturgy he remembered from the old boarding school days. the first hymn we will hear is one that will be familiar to most americans with familiarity of history which is the navy hymn, eternal father. it's a victorian hymn both adopted by the royal navy and by the united states navy. it's where the phrase restless wave came from which senator mccain used as the title of the

last book. it was sung by winston churchill and franklin roosevelt in august of 1941 when they were meeting secretly at sea to plan how to defeat tyranny. it was was sung at president kennedy's services. i remember daniel patrick remembering that his central memory of those terrible days in november was that everyone in washington suddenly knew all the words to eternal father, strong to save, but when you -- the other thing as this unfolds and when the judge or preacher rises to give the homily in the pulpit, remember, that's called the can berry pulpit. where martin luther king delivered the final sermon on the same day linden johnson announced and decided to leave the presidential race.

the last time doctor king preached to a sunday service was in this cathedral and used the central insight that the arch of a moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice and his voice echoed through this cathedral. also and i'm thinking about president bush sitting there now george w. bush. this is in some ways the moment and the place he became president. and the terrible service on after the attacks on the friday service before he went to ground zero. >> right. >> he said we are in the middle hour of our grief. >> i agree with you about that john. that was when he stood with the firefighter and said we're going to get the people that broke down these buildings. let me go to a man who knows about war and war fronts. richard engel. one thing we think about in these moments was what it was like with him out in the front.

he spent so much time with the troops. warrior among warriors. tell us about you witnessing that. >> so he was someone who would always show up in hot spots in war zones and often with very little feianfare. he would come to visit the troops. big supporters of the troops. he also supported their mission. a lot of politicians say they are patriotic and support the troops. he was a true believer that the united states had a moral responsibility to intervene and if you look with what has happened today. the left capital that green stop at the vietnam memorial where he spent so many years as a prison of war being abused and i think that experience left him allergic to bullies. bullies at home. bullies abroad and his belief was that the united states as a

super power needed to use its power to stand up to bullies. one of the pallbearers is vladim vladimir, an opponent of the putin regime. someone poisoned twice at the behest of russian intelligence. someone who believed that the united states should act and that had some times mixed consequences. he was a big supporters of the u.s. intervention in libya. i remember seeing him in libya. he wanted the united states to act more forcibly in syria. big advocate of the iraq war although later in life wrote that the iraq war in his opinion was a mistake. >> thank you so much my friend. let's go to john weaver. worked closely and politically with john mccain. we didn't hear from him today.

it's grown in importance. this event. this marking of the loss of this personality who was -- everybody knew him in politics. john weaver. >> thank you, chris. mixed a lot of emotions here today. you know, we have been in dark times. i had a conversation with john just after donald trump was elected president and i beceased to speak louder and more often than he said johnny, we are in dark times. you don't need to worry about me. i think it's these dark times, chris; right now that is making this moment as much as its deserved even larger than it is. because people are yearning and searching for a coming together in this country. when i see george bush and barack obama there, i know what john mccain thought. when he saw these men and we were in a tough battle and you were with us in south carolina against the bush campaign, he saw them as rivals.

he saw george bush as a rival. he didn't see him as an enemy. he was in a tough battle with barack obama for the presidency. he saw him as a rival. did not see him as an enemy. when he looked across the aisle, he didn't see enemies. he saw americans who he had disagreement with. that's what we've got to get back to in this country. i received a message this week from jack mccain who continues the family lineage and the navy. and he said. you know he would want to get back in the fight. i hope so many people get back in the fight. at the end of the day, john mccain was aspirational figure. he loved america. and he believed in the future of america.

next couple of days, the late john mccain designed everything you're going to see for the next hour and a half. he picked the people to speak. as well as to pray together. he put it all together. he picked the prayers, the songs, the personalities, the feel of this next hour and a half. he personally did this. i believe we all know it's a statement. a political testament of what he wanted to be remembered by, but what he wanted to go on after him. apparently, with all the suffering, he left a complete life. there's al gore there. another person who could have

been president. hillary clinton who won the most popular vote. the two former presidents. this is honor role here of people and presidents who could have been presidents. al gore got the most votes against george w. the ones that got the most votes as well all in the first row. i think stature was important to john mccain and having the stat yo ture of these people here today, i expect we're going to be smart to stay and listen to the words of barack obama and george w. bush and joe libberman and meghan mccain. the four people speaking today. and also the homily of father edward reeds who taught the two mccain boys outs in phoenix arizona. anyway, this is a moment we're looking at the church now. this is quite a church. as i said, my son thomas sang here for years. he got a discount if you sang.

this church has been here a long time. it's the national cathedral. this is where almost all the big funerals are held. the presidents, and, of course, the famous people we've got in political life. they all end up here as john mccain has ended up here today. my colleague, give us a thought about this again. as you were the youngest person

to speak today. i have to say, you've got a perspective on this that some of us may have missed. what do you make of all this? this moment. >> as someone who covered john mccain and someone who really knew how deliberate he would be when he walked around the capitol and spoke to reporters and when he wanted to talk and make a point, he was very clear about that. to think he designed the next hour and a half that he wanted this music. that he wanted this to unfold in this way in this beautiful, beautiful church. it in some ways almost brings tears to my eyes because i can imagine what the senator was thinking as he put all this together. and i think it's -- he's creating this idea that we as a nation really need to reflect on how we move forward on when we are -- when we individual ly an die individually and go to our makers, how are we going to want to be remembered.

what do we want to think about as we think about all the people that we maybe have competed against or who we've lost to or even won against. i think when i look at this and i look at these faces, it reminds me that even as we go back to tuesday and people go back to partsonness and arguing over judge kavanaugh, we're all americans and all fighting for the good of this nation. bipartis bipartisan. is bipartisan it's not that one of us had to do something with. this something that had to be decontaminate instead politics and lightened up a bit. i think the country just didn't have the same visceral negativity it had right bef